World Series of Poker: Tournament of Champions Hands-On

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Activision's upcoming poker game: Chris Ferguson approved.

By Charles Onyett

On the cusp of the World Series of Poker's main event, Activision was showed off their latest chip-tossing effort, World Series of Poker: Tournament of Champions. For a budget priced game, this one's got some surprisingly extensive gameplay features. We got a chance to get some extensive hands-on time with the Xbox 360 version. Though we didn't get to look at the single player, we did play the online portion in a nine person tournament, which included poker extraordinaire Chris Ferguson. The PSP, PS2, and Xbox 360 versions will each feature two exclusive professional poker players. Between the rest will be the same core of over 20 pros including Scotty Nguyen, T. J. Cloutier, and Antonio Esfandiari. The PC version unfortunately gets no exclusive characters. Though the characters and a few other features differ, Activision claims each version's core gameplay elements are exactly the same.

Of course the main draw of a poker game is the ability to go online and embroil yourself in battles of wit with live opponents. While WSOP: TOC certainly gives players that opportunity, its worth checking out the single player as well. In it, players will engage in a story mode driven largely by poker star Chris "Jesus" Ferguson. Starting off in a poker match in someone's basement, Ferguson recognizes you as the most promising talent at the table, and takes you along the poker circuit to sharpen your skills. We didn't get a chance to see how in-depth the story actually was in the long run, but after the basement game there was a cut-scene between the player and Ferguson. It lasted about a minute, and was full of actual voice clips from Ferguson. When actually playing at a table with other pros, they'll spout a number of recorded voice clips as well.

Deep in contemplation.

Even before that, it's possible to head into the character creation mode to create the ultimate slick badass. Or greasy abomination of human existence. A number of customization options allow players to modify eyebrows, hair styles and colors, height, body type and proportion, clothing, glasses, table markers, and bobble head dolls for good luck charms. Yes, bobble heads. Many of the accessory items need to be unlocked by performing actions in the single player tournaments. Players are notified of these events through a ticker that runs across the bottom of the screen. In addition, the ticker shows blinds, the number of hands to a blind increase, chip standings, and how many players is remaining, advice from Ferguson.

Accruing items for augmenting your created character's appearance is only one part of the unlockables. As the career mode progresses, furniture such as cabinets, stereo systems, and shelves will be made available, in addition to carpets other household mainstays. Using these items players can customize their own poker room, which can be played in offline or imported online. Should anyone get fed up with some aesthetically revolting changes they'd made with either their character's appearance or poker room, they can be edited at any time without the need to restart the career mode.

Fight!

Once all the extraneous details are organized, it's time to finally pull up a chair. Like any poker game should, WSOP: TOC makes it easy for player to bet, fold, check, see how much is in the pot, double-check what cards they have, who's on big and small blinds, etc. A first person mode can be toggled as well, which enables players to swing their head around the poker table to check out the action. When it's another participant's turn, players can see them pushing in their chips, tossing away their cards, or waving a check. Also visible are the movements of players' mouths when they make one of a few stock utterances depending on their decisions, and when they sneeze, which happens with surprising frequency.

As yet another unlockable extra, players can check out what are called Poker Tools any time during play. Once all the pieces are available, it's possible to see what kinds of odds players have with their current hand, how many out they have, and even opponent's statistics like how many flops they've seen or the frequency with which they raise. After two or more people commit all their chips, the game will display under each player's name the chances of them taking a pot, much like the poker broadcasts on television. Should someone push a player out on the turn, there's also a option that can be toggled so the hidden river card is exposed, letting the player know if they should have actually tossed their cards away. It may actually be best to keep this option off, lest players be compelled to commit an excessive amount of forehead smacking.